Villain Cultivator

'That sewer girl, wasn't Xu Xiuying gone after her?'

Xu Miao squinted his eyes as he remembered this protagonist's love interest. She was with Xie Tian in the sewer.

Xiong Zhenzhen also stared at Xu Miao in shock.

"Xu Miao? What's he doing here? I thought Xu Xiuying already captured him."

Behind Xiong Zhenzhen, several women were also surprised. All of these VY disciples had met Xu Miao before.

One of the women didn't hide her killing intent toward Xu Miao. She had long straight black hair, and she wore a wooden mask.

Xu Miao didn't recognize this masked woman, but he sensed a familiar Qi, the flame dragon Qi.

'Huh? That Qi… What the fuck!? Why are you crossdressing, Xie Tian!?'

Xu Miao suspected that this masked woman was Xie Tian in disguise. He didn't know why and how he stayed with them, though.

While Xu Miao and the masked woman were glaring at each other, the garden leader, Ju Shoufen clapped her hands, drawing everyone's attention away from Xiong Zhenzhen's group.

"Now, now. Let's continue what we have left off. As for you, junior Xu Miao, if you don't have a cauldron, you can stay there and listen to the lecture."

Xu Miao came back to his senses. He coughed and brought out the only pot cauldron he had, "Is this up to the standard?"

Many alchemist women giggled, finding the pot cute.

"That thing can only refine low-grade pills, junior."

"You should at least get a proper cauldron if you plan to practice alchemist arts, young man."

"No, no. Don't laugh at him. He's just a rookie. There's no harm starting with the basic."

"That's right. He might be poor, so he couldn't afford a proper cauldron. Don't belittle him. Young man, you can use that cauldron to practice making basic pills. But if you want to go higher, you should get a yang jade cauldron or buy a high-grade cauldron from the contribution hall."

Although they laughed at Xu Miao, these alchemists encouraged Xu Miao and suggested him to change his tool instead of mocking him.

Ju Shoufen clapped her hands again, "Pipe it down, everyone. Well, junior Xu Miao, if you have a cauldron, have you ever transmuted, refined, or concocted anything before?"

Xu Miao didn't hide his experience this time, "I can make low-grade healing pills, but my success rate is lower than 10%."

Many newbie alchemists widened their eyes. They were surprised, but they weren't impressed with Xu Miao's success rate.

"Aren't the low-grade pills easy to make? Even those who barely know alchemy have the success rate of 90%."

"SHH! Don't discourage him. He might have been doing it the wrong way. Let's help him get better. This is a seminar for rookies, yes?"

Several old women consoled Xu Miao. Some of them even took out empty scrolls to write a guide for him specifically.

But Ju Shoufen stopped them.

"I think we should let him concoct the most basic pill for us to see, so we can help him. Is everyone okay with my decision?"

The ladies nodded while the young alchemists abstained their opinion. As for Xiong Zhenzhen's group, they only observed the situation from a distance.

"Thank you very much, senior. Although it's a bit unsightly, please bear with this junior's inexperience attempt."

Xu Miao brought out a 5-year-old spirit ginseng. His nimble hands plucked the leaves and cut the unused pieces without pausing.

Everything at this point was normal. The feat might be impressive from the perspective of other young rookies and alchemy enthusiasts. But for the experts here, Xu Miao's skill was still clumsy.

"Ah, he cut too deep."

"The roots aren't protected by his yang Qi."

"He didn't use the leaves?"

Xu Miao could hear the murmurs and the critics. He took notes in his mind as he continued processing the ginseng.

After the processing was done, he dropped the ginseng into the pot and started baking it.

Everyone stopped talking. They used their sixth sense to observe Xu Miao's cauldron and the ginseng.

As Xu Miao had repeated this process over a thousand times in the past couple of days, his control over his yang essence was smoother. The temperature surrounding the ginseng wasn't too hot or too cold while he was compressing the material into dust and merged it with his essence drop to make a pill.

3 Minutes later, the pill was completed.

Again, Xu Miao's pill quality was average.

"How was it, senior?" Xu Miao took out the pill and asked for advice.

"…"

Everyone stared at Xu Miao with a complicated look. He could see the astonishment, bafflement, and curiosity of the onlookers with their expression.

Even Ju Shoufen had to question Xu Miao.

"When you said that your success rate is less than 10%, does it include the pills with lower quality?"

"… No. The rate is purely for the average pills. Why?"

Ju Shoufen grinned, "So, have you been using this method to concoct that pills?"

"Yes."

"How many times have you practiced using this method?"

"About 700ish times, maybe."

"Hoho," Ju Shoufen flew down from the central pillar where she had stood. She walked toward Xu Miao. Then, he took out a crimson cauldron from her spatial ring.

It was one of her treasures, an earth-grade ruby cauldron.

The cauldron was made by Sun Ruby, a yang-element jewel that could amplify Qi and Essence. The bottom was the same as an ordinary pot, but the middle section and the top had holes in them, giving ventilation to the interior. However, the ruby cauldron came with additional lids that could cover these holes, just in case an alchemist didn't want the air to leak.

In addition, the ruby became transparent whenever it touched a strand of yang Qi. Alchemists would be able to see the content inside the cauldron whenever he used to pot.

All in all, this thing was superior to Xu Miao's brown cauldron.

"I have a challenge for you, young man."

"Yes?" Xu Miao rubbed his right eyebrow. It didn't send an emergency signal, but he was on guard against this elderly woman, "What challenge?"

"I will allow you to use this cauldron to concoct the pill again. However, I will show you how I make mine. You have to copy my way from the very beginning. If your pill's quality is better than mine, I'll give you this cauldron."

Every alchemist was shocked. A dozen of Ju Shoufen's disciples protested as the treasure was too valuable to give it to an outsider. However, Ju Shoufen insisted that she wanted to test Xu Miao.

As for Xu Miao, he didn't like it. He was wary of Ju Shoufen's motive.

"What will happen if I fail the challenge?"

Ju Shoufen laughed, "You won't lose anything. Don't worry. I'm not like one of those Han Garden's bitches that always take advantage of men. I'm also different from Xu Xiuying and her prostitutes. I never put someone in harm's way or take advantage of anyone. This is my alchemy institution, not some ruffian gangs."

Even though Ju Shoufen showed her sincerity, Xu Miao still didn't trust her, "What can you achieve by teaching me?"

"An experiment."

"Experiment?"

"I'll be honest. Your concoction process is crude and inefficient. Yet, you can still make an average-quality pill. Therefore, I'm curious. If I teach you proper alchemy, can you make better pills?"

"Even if I can make better pills, what's the point?"

Ju Shoufen turned to other alchemist students, "Everybody here has practiced making this low-grade healing pills for years, and they have been using my method. However, the best pill they can make is above average. Their success rates are high, but they can never make any superior pill."

The elder turned back to Xu Miao, "And then, you, who doesn't even know how to make a proper pill, can make an average healing pill with an inferior cauldron. So, I want to test your talent. If you understand the proper process, are you better than my students? If so, what are the differences? What makes you so special? This is what I want to know, and I'm willing to part with this cauldron to get the answers."

Xu Miao's expression turned solemn. He understood why Ju Shoufen acted this way.

This elder woman had the personality of an enthusiastic scientist who stumbled upon a practical theory. For the sake of confirming her hypotheses, she was willing to invest in her whimsical research.

Xu Miao let down his guard. He decided to risk exposing his abilities once more. After all, the people in this garden seemed kind.

"Okay, senior. I accept your challenge. I shall do my best."

"Hahaha! That's good. Then, I'll demonstrate how we concoct low-grade healing pills, starting from the ingredient processing methods."

…

For half an hour, Ju Shoufen processed a 5-year-old spirit ginseng while she lectured Xu Miao and all students. Everyone huddled to see how the garden master concocted a simple pill.

There were trivial details that the system recipe and White Album never taught Xu Miao.

When Ju Shoufen separated the ginseng roots, she always enveloped the material with her yin and yang Qi, preventing the medicinal effect from leaking. The leaves that Xu Miao never used were crushed and mixed with two drops of Ju Shoufen's yin essence, turning them into sticky liquid. Then, Ju Shoufen soaked the ginseng roots with the leaf liquid for another half an hour.

Afterward, she baked the ginseng like how Xu Miao always did. But the difference was – the compressed ginseng root grew larger than Xu Miao's version.

Ju Shoufen controlled her Qi to sever the ginseng into five pieces and increased the fire temperature. The pieces of ginseng slowly shaped into five golden balls.

After five minutes of refining and condensing process, Ju Shoufen opened the cauldron lid.

After the tedious preparation and processing, five perfect-quality pills had been made from only one piece of ingredient!

The bitter medicinal smell hit everyone's noses. Just by exhaling the scent, they felt refreshed.

"Amazing as always. Her low-grade healing pills have the same smell as medium-grade ones."

"Let's not forget that the ingredient is a 5-year-old spirit ginseng. Had it been a 100-year-old one, she would have made a high-grade healing pill instead."

Ju Shoufen turned off her yang flame and cooled the cauldron's temperature. She cleaned it without leaving a speck of single dust inside before she passed it to Xu Miao.

"Your turn, young man."